Broken

Chapter 4 - The First Time I Kinda Believed

"Morning Tommy." I mumbled, lifting my eyes briefly to acknowledge him. He stood up to make some tea. I did a double take.

"Tom, where did those bruises come from?" I asked, standing up beside him, taking his arm gently.

"Hm? Oh, I, uh, I don't know..." He pulled his arm away, grabbing a cup from the cupboard.

"Tommy?" I had a serious tone in my voice. I could tell he was lying. And he knew it.

"I got them last night, D." He murmured, pouring hot water into the cup.

"How, Tom?" I quizzed.

"When you had your nightmare last night, you were holding onto my arm, I guess you got really scared or something, and then I woke you up when you started screaming..." he tailed off, looking me in the eye.

"Oh my god." I sunk into the chair next to me.

"I'm so sorry, Tom. I'm so unbelievably sorry for hurting you..." I felt a tear forming in the corner of my eye. Tom crouched down next to me.

"Darya. Look at me. You take back that apology, right this second. None of this is your fault." He cupped my face in his hands, wiping my tears away with his thumb.

"Yes it is, Tommy. If I hadn't been so terrified, you wouldn't be covered in bruises this morning. If I had the balls to sleep alone, you would be fine. I did this to you because I was too scared to believe I was safe." I whimpered, tears rolling down my cheeks as the realisation hit me. I had to believe it. I had to believe I was finally safe from that monster.

"Darya. You trust me, don't you?" Tom asked, taking my hands in his.

"Of course I do, Tom, you know that." I whispered.

"Then do you trust me when I say that I will never, ever let anyone hurt you ever again? And do you trust me when I say I'll always be there for you if you ever get scared?" He spoke so gently, so caringly.

"I do, Tommy." A sad smile creeped across my face.

"Then do you trust me when I say I don't mind that I have a couple of bruises in the morning? And that it's nothing compared to the hell you've been through, and I don't mind it as long as you're safe with me?"

"I do."

And for the first time ever, I kinda believed that I was finally safe.

I spent the day at home with Nikki, Dom and Harry. He had come home for the weekend, as he was having some work done on his apartment. Myself and Harry were out in the garden, catching up on life. He knew about my past, and knew not to ask questions. He was telling me about his latest venture as a director of a small independent film, when I heard Nikki shout to Harry to get me inside and down to the basement as fast as possible.

"What's going on?" He asked, pulling me into the house, his mum hot on our heels.

"Take Milo and Tessa too. We're all coming down here." She dragged Dom by the wrist, as Harry opened the hatch beneath the rug in the living room to reveal the stairway to the basement.

"Nikki, what the hell is going on?" I begged, stumbling down the stairs, holding tightly onto Harry's shirt for support.

"He's coming. Tom was driving home and saw him coming down the road. He's phoned the police, and he's staying at the top of the road to keep an eye on him until the cops get here."

"Who's coming?" Harry asked, tumbling over an empty beer bottle.

"Steve." Dom had a warning tone in his voice.

He found me. My brief trust that I was safe here was shattered. I cowered in the far corner, Milo with his head in my lap as I tried to hold back the floods of tears that threatened to spill over if I tried to make a sound.

"Darya, look at me. You're gonna be ok. Everything's gonna be ok."

I was rocking backwards and forwards, my hands on the sides of my head, trying not to let out a scream that would lead to the murder of every single one of us in the basement.

"I've texted Pads, and told him to go somewhere with a friend, and to stay as far away from the house as possible." Dom whisper-shouted.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I kept repeating it quietly, not able to sit still.

"D, give me your hands. Look at me. You're ok. You're safe with us." Harry tried to calm me down, but he didn't know how. Not like Tom.

"Darya! You fucking bitch, where the hell are you?!" I heard the front door bang open, Steve's heavy, drunken footsteps on the living room floor.

I could hear him smashing things, cursing and shouting. He kept repeating my name, calling me a slag, a bitch, you name it.

The next thing we heard was the sirens. The police were finally here. They were finally going to lock this animal away.

I could hear the struggle to get him into cuffs.

"Let's go back up." Dom led the way, then Nikki, then me, then Harry.

"Are you Tom?" One of the officers made his way through the mess Steve had made of the living room.

"No, I'm his father, Dom."

"Sir, we're going to need a statement from Tom, and from Dar-Darya?" He struggled to pronounce my name.

"It's Darya." I heard Tom in the doorway. He ran over to me.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't here to protect you." He tried to hug me, but I pulled away.

And in that moment, he could see it in my eyes that the trust that had been built up over the last fifteen years had disappeared. I was gone beyond reach. And it was going to take a hell of a lot to get me back.

As quickly as I began to believe Tom's words, I went back to believing I wasn't safe, and never would be. I was always going to be broken.